A study released Thursday by the nonprofit Environment California Research & Policy Center ranked more than 50 U.S. cities according to their solar energy capabilities.

San Diego previously ranked first in smaller, statewide surveys published in 2009 and 2012 by the same group. By the end of 2013, Los Angeles had 23 percent more solar within its city boundaries than San Diego.

The publicly owned Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has spurred a wave of solar construction on industrial properties under a temporary “feed-in tariff” that provides fixed, long-term contracts to solar energy producers, the report said.

“It’s a little discouraging that we slipped from No. 1 to No. 2,” said Dan Sullivan, president of San Diego-based solar installer Sullivan Solar Power. “But I take some comfort in knowing that we still have three times as much solar installed per person compared to Los Angeles. So we still have that going for us.”

Top 5 solar cities

Los Angles

San Diego

Phoenix

San Jose

Honolulu

Top 5 - per capita solar

Honolulu

San Jose

Wilmington, Del.

San Diego

Indianapolis

The “Shining Cities” report tallied rooftop, commercial and bigger utility-scale solar farms within 57 cities. It found more than a gigawatt of solar energy systems all told, comparable on a sunny day to the output of a large nuclear reactor.

“This is the first time we’ve looked at the top metro areas across the country to put together an apples-to-apples comparison,” said Michelle Kinman, clean energy advocate at Environment California.

The report highlights successful and innovative approaches to boosting solar energy as an alternative to fossil fuels, from rooftop solar mandates for new construction in Sebastopol and Lancaster, to incentives for building solar on decontaminated industrial sites in New Bedford, Mass. The report also makes the case for solar coupled with storage — still an emerging technology — to increase cities’ resiliency to severe weather and natural disasters.

Sullivan, the solar installer, held out praise for San Diego’s efficient permitting process for rooftop solar and quick interconnection service by investor-owned utility San Diego Gas & Electric.

But high electricity prices have been the fundamental force behind San Diego’s solar success, he said.

“It makes the value proposition for going solar virtually a no-brainer,” he said. “I think that’s true throughout the state.”

On a per-capita basis, Honolulu leads all other cities by a broad margin. Hawaii’s power grid has the nation’s highest penetration of photovoltaic solar, a response to high energy prices along with aggressive state mandates and incentives for renewable power.

Five California cities were among the top 15 nationwide in solar power capabilities.

Despite that success, California’s rooftop solar industry finds itself at a crossroads as direct state rebates run out under the California Solar Initiative, and state regulators overhaul the “net energy metering” system for crediting utility bills for solar power delivered to the grid.

Current customers and those who sign up soon can hold on to the old net metering system for 20 years. But pending changes for residential utility bills also could limit the payoff from going solar.

Among customers of SDG&E, there were more than 33,100 rooftop solar arrays — atop residential, commercial and public buildings — as of the end of January across San Diego and southern Orange counties.

Setting aside rooftop solar, California utilities must procure 33 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Much of that new power is coming from large solar plants in remote desert areas.